Google sued for tracking Texas consumers

Jan. 24, The Texas Attorney General filed a third lawsuit against Google, again alleging that the company is systematically misleading and deceiving Texas consumers in violation of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Attorneys for the state argue that Google misled Texas consumers by continuing to track their personal location even when the user tried to prevent such activity, or thought he or she had disabled it from doing so. Google then allegedly used the deceptively gathered data to push advertisements to the consumer, earning enormous profits from wrongfully collected personal data.

Google provides a setting called “Location History” and tells users that, if they turn it off, “the places you go are no longer stored,” the AG filing explains.

“In spite of this assurance, Google continues to track users’ location through other settings and methods that it fails to adequately disclose,” Texas Attorney General argues. “Google’s founding motto is ‘Don’t Be Evil.’ And yet, it systematically lies to millions of consumers in order to stack billions of dollars into its coffers.

“This is not only an unethical invasion of privacy – it’s against the law.”